The present invention relates to the field of printing using modern, high-function printers. More specifically, the invention relates to print job ticketing, wherein print parameters applying to a source file are specified in a so-called job ticket, and the ability to associate more than one print job ticket with a source file.
At the outset, it is useful to review certain terminology which will be used in the following discussion. A print job typically is a data file stored accessibly to an information handling system such as a high function personal computer or network server. The data file may have been originated in a number of ways known to printing technologists, including original document keying, scanning, the use of graphics design programs, and the like. The print job may be understood as defining a sequence of pages, each page including content to be printed.
In preparing a print job for transfer to a high-feature printer, such as the IBM Infoprint 2000 and others, an operator will create a job ticket which describes to the printer or print server the control functions necessary to cause the print job to appear on the printed pages as desired by the originator. The operator may specify many different job ticketing parameters such as choice of media, ordered media sets (such as precut tab stock), one-sided or two-sided printing, force-to-front-side printing, preprinted inserts, document covers, tape binding, stapling, hole drilling, and so on. Some of these parameters may apply to the entire document described by the print job (document attributes) while others apply only to certain pages within the document (page exceptions). Many of these parameters are best perceived visually.
Typically, existing products require that the job originator specify these parameters using traditional dialogs and selecting the page numbers for page exceptions. In such an environment, it is easy for the job originator to make a mistake because there is no visual feedback identifying exactly what document attributes were set or which pages have exceptions. Some existing products use a proprietary document viewing application to show a visual image of each page in the document with some visual indications of the current document attributes and page exceptions. Techniques allowing a user to view a document being prepared for printing, including visual cues indicating the selected print characteristics, and to modify the displayed print characteristics and thus the associated job ticket may be referred to as “visual job ticketing”.
It is a common occurrence for a user to need to print the same source file in multiple ways. For example, a customer might request 90 copies of a file be printed on inexpensive standard stock and 10 copies to be printed on higher quality stock. Existing job ticketing solutions, including those known visual job ticketing solutions, have a one-to-one mapping between source file and job ticket, thus requiring the operator to make multiple copies of the source file, one for each different job ticket. Multiple copies require more storage space, increase the likelihood of a ticketing or printing error and increase the job-ticket management demands imposed on the operator and on the system resources. This requirement seems especially burdensome since, in most situations, the majority of the print parameters will be the same from one job ticket to the next, varying only in a few key aspects.
Therefore it is desirable to allow multiple job tickets to be created and associated with a single print job source file. It is also desirable to provide a simple, intuitive way of creating and managing these print job tickets, preferably utilizing visual job ticketing. Finally, it is desirable to allow the creation of new print job tickets using an existing print job ticket as a starting point and making only those changes that are necessary.